


Aftermath

by allonsysilvertongue



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Tower, Dad!Tony, Other, Post Infinity War, Son!Peter, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 05:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14489595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allonsysilvertongue/pseuds/allonsysilvertongue
Summary: Tony Stark visits Peter Parker's apartment after the events in Titan





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> i'm still trying to cope

** Aftermath **

If Titan was desolate, Earth was filled with chaos, panic and confusion. The surviving population grappled to understand the reality of what just occurred. Governments were scrambling to install some peace within its civilian population while holding emergency elections all around.

All of that became just another aftermath scene, another background noise for Tony. He was secluded in the compound, held there for five days and three hours since his return from Titan. Being back at the compound, a place that was meant to be familiar and _safe_ , felt jarring more than anything else.

It felt _empty_.

Since the falling out after the Accords, the compound had been a little quieter but it hadn’t bothered Tony that much. He knew that Steve and the others were out there somewhere. He knew that if they were pardoned, they could return but this wasn’t the case anymore.

Half of the Avengers were gone.

Steve returned, if only because there was nowhere else to go and because in light of recent events it was imperative that they all stick together. He walked the halls grim-faced and lost in his own thoughts, his steps heavy and burdened.

They had all lost someone – a friend, an acquaintance, a team member – but Tony and Steve seemed the most broken. _That_ was left unspoken and unacknowledged, and Tony said nothing when it became obvious that between Clint, Natasha, Bruce and Rhodey, they had taken the task of keeping an eye on Steve and himself.  

It was their way to try and hold the pillars of the Avengers together, difficult as it was when grief enveloped the place so heavily. Thor came and gone between dimensions, working to bring those who survived in the other realms together.

Bruce and Rhodey had been the ones to be by Tony’s side when he regained consciousness from surgery. Bruce had asked about Peter but there was only so much he could say before he choked on his words and the guilt came bubbling in. Tony could never – would never – forget holding the kid in his arms and feeling his weight lessen by the second as he slowly disintegrated. He would never forget the sense of helplessness he felt.

“Leaving?”

Steve’s voice stopped him cold.

“There’s some place I need to be,” he answered, his fingers toying with his sunglasses.

He glanced once over his shoulder to look at Steve and waited for the rebuke or the disapproval but the man merely nodded.

Standing just below the apartment building, Tony took a deep breath. His steps were slow and careful, mindful of his injury. It was not hurting him, merely a bother.

The door to the apartment opened easily enough.

“May?” he called out.

Of course, Tony had tried to call her the moment he entered Earth’s atmosphere. He had instructed Friday to get in touch with her moments before he underwent surgery but it had all been in vain. He came to the definitive conclusion – she was gone.

Still, he had to try. He would give anything right now for that woman to come barreling out of the kitchen to shout and scream at him or to blame him but the apartment was deadly silent.

Tony veered to the left, walking down a familiar hallway before entering Peter’s room.

It was ironic, he mused, that so much had happened and yet, everything stayed exactly the way it was. This room was _normal_. It reflected none of the catastrophe, the destruction, the death.

Peter’s room looked clean and neat but Tony wasn’t deceived. He was sure that if he were to yank open the door to that one particular wardrobe, clothes would spill out. If he were to check under the bed, he might find pieces of old tech. His gaze was drawn to the Lego Millennium Falcon proudly displayed on the desk.

Tony bit his clenched fist, forcing himself to take in a deep shaky breath.

He was just a kid. He was barely seventeen years old and had an entire life waiting for him. As brave as he tried to be, as enthusiastic as he was about helping those in need and as eager as he was to please his mentor, Peter Parker was just a teenager.

And it showed in his room.

Tony approached the desk where the Millennium Falcon sat. The kid’s math homework laid opened as if he was working on it the night before the school trip and was planning on finishing it once he returned home from school.

That never happened. Peter ended up in space, onboard Squiward’s space ship. Peter ended up turned to ashes.

This one simple thing, this small inconsequential detail of Peter’s unfinished homework sent a jolt of pain through Tony’s heart.

He took down the framed photo on the wall of a young Peter Parker during his middle school graduation.

 _For the funeral_ , he suddenly remembered.

There were talks of conducting funerals for all their fallen comrades and the thought of holding a funeral for Peter….

It was too much.

Tony collapsed on Peter’s bed. His chest felt constricted and he struggled to breathe. For the first time since Titan, he allowed himself to mourn for the loss of a kid who looked up to him in nothing but awe and respect, a kid whom he loved. In that small apartment, in his protégé’s bedroom, the tears fell.

 


End file.
